New attempt at appeasement in Corsica, ten days after the violent attack on Yvan Colonna. Gérald Darmanin will meet Wednesday and Thursday “all elected officials and active forces” of the island, said in a press release the Minister of the Interior. And to specify: the government has “heard the requests of the elected officials of Corsica on the institutional, economic, social or cultural future” of Corsica, in particular “those of the president of the executive council, Gilles Simeoni”, who claims a status of autonomy for Corsica, adds the Minister.
This cycle of “unprecedented” discussions will aim to “find the conditions for such an evolution of Corsica in the Republic, as provided for in the Constitution”, continues Gérald Darmanin, without detailing.
Darmanin at the “meeting of the forces of order”
Condemning “firmly” the violence of recent days, the minister calls for a “return to calm without delay”, “calm without which no dialogue can begin”. On Sunday, the demonstration in Bastia in support of Yvan Colonna turned into a “riot”, according to the Bastia prosecutor, with 67 injured including 44 members of the police.
Since the attack on March 2 in prison of this independence activist sentenced for his participation in the assassination of the prefect Erignac in 1998, several rallies and violence have taken place on the island, against a background of questions about the conditions of this attack. .
During his trip, Gérald Darmanin will go to “meet the forces of order” mobilized on the spot. The Minister of the Interior “knows that the Corsicans, for whom he has the greatest respect, aspire to find peace and assures them of his full listening in these difficult times”, he writes again.